With a history of more than 2,000 years, the Dragon Boat Festival is one of the four major traditional Chinese festivals. It falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar, hence the name Duanwu, "Duan" meaning the beginning while "Wu" means five, signifying the fifth month.

Apart from making and eating zongzi, other activities on Duanwu are mostly those resting people's wish toward off evil spirits or protect against diseases in the summer heat, such as bathing in flower-scented water, wearing five-color silk, hanging plants such as moxa and calamus over the door, and drinking realgar wine.

Historical records show that dragon boat races in Guangzhou can be dated back to the Southern Han Dynasty. The Nanyue King Museum has a Bronze Bucket with Boat Paintings which is believed to depict the ceremony of worshipping the god of water by the Yue people in the Lingnan region.

At the center of the festival are the dragon boat races (斗标/赛龙舟). Dragon boat racing is quite a spectacle, with drums beating, colorful flags waving, and thousands of people cheering on both sides of the river. These exciting races were inspired by the villagers' valiant attempts to rescue the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan from the Miluo River. This tradition has remained unbroken for centuries.